The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both - Vaclav Havel

Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Perils of Palin

The most technologically advanced nation on Earth may be at risk of ending up with a an anti-science, creationist VP, but at least the folks over at Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network are jumping for joy...

At first blush, picking the 44-year-old Palin appeared to be a fairly straightforward bid for disaffected Democratic women -- those who remain unreconciled to Barack Obama's nomination and who were offended by his subsequent refusal to put Hillary Clinton on the ticket. In fact, during her brief remarks in Ohio on Friday, Palin cited Clinton and former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro as her political antecedents. Palin even echoed Clinton's line about 18 million cracks made in the highest, hardest glass ceiling -- and then vowed to shatter it.

It's possible some Clinton supporters remain unmoved by her wholehearted appeals for party unity in Denver this week. Still, it seems unlikely that many will cross the aisle to McCain -- no matter who his running mate is. Clinton's admirers feel about her as they do not just because she's a woman but because she's a particular sort of woman.

Palin is emphatically not that sort of woman. She is, however, the sort who fires the enthusiasm of the religious right and the GOP's socially conservative wing. That's where her presence on the ticket really helps McCain, whose popularity in that crucial part of the Republican base never has been better than tepid. As a correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network reported Friday, evangelical leaders literally hugged each other "in joy" when Palin's name was announced.

It's easy to see why. Palin is an evangelical Christian, a creationist and opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage. (Alaska was one of the first states to amend its constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, and Palin supported that 1998 measure.) She also happens to be a lifetime member of the National Rifle Assn. and a hunting and fishing enthusiast whose favorite dish is moose stew.

At some point, too, she'll have to face the formidable Joe Biden -- veteran chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- in a debate sure to hone in on her utter lack of experience with foreign policy and national security issues. If she isn't careful, Palin could emerge from that encounter looking a lot like Dan Quayle in drag.

What much of the "pro-life" crowd, not being to keen on the 'Satanic art of genetics', probably also don't understand is that Down syndrome ranges from totally non viable, self-aborting, to barely viable outside of the womb, to severely disabled, to almost "normal", depending on the degree of chromosomal misalignment.

It's to be hoped for Mrs Palin's pro-life cause that this baby is only a mild case as otherwise it'll be a living advert for the pro-choice people...

Oh, Cookie, wild horses couldn't drag me away, you know that ;). But I've not been as busy commenting on other people's soapboxes as sometimes I was...

As regards John McCain's choice of running mate, it's clever, albeit a bit transparent ("we can do woman too, neh neh neneneh..."). I knew you'd like her and you haven't even seen her naked yet, or am I not in the loop?

Nope...haven't seen her naked, and probably won't....but it wouldn't bother me that much if'n I did...;-)

I must say, a few months back I woulda bet the farm that the Dem's ticket was going to be Obama/Hillary...to me that would have been a landslide victiry for the man...but...politics breeds strange bed-fellows (pun intended)